Smasher:Ken

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Ken Hoang. The list of authors can be seen in their page's history. As with SmashWiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Ken "SephirothKen"
Character info
Melee main	Marth
Other Melee characters	Fox, Captain Falcon, Roy
Brawl main	Marth
Project M main	Marth
Team info
Crew(s)	Team Liquid
Former crews	Socal Elite 4
Personal and other info
Real name	Ken Hoang
Birth date	October 10, 1985
Location	Westminster, California
Miscellaneous info
Skill	Top professional

Ken Hoang (born October 10, 1985), also referred to as just Ken, SephirothKen, or a variety of other nicknames, such as "The King of Smash" and "The Asian Sensation", is an American professional smasher of Vietnamese descent. Often cited to be the World Champion of Super Smash Bros. Melee during his prime, Ken is said to have earned well over $40,000 USD playing the game. His main character since his debut in Tournament Go 4 has been Marth, and he uses Fox as an alternate character. The two-time national champion of Major League Gaming, two-time winner of Tournament Go and winner of many other tournaments, Ken was officially ranked the best Super Smash Bros. Melee player in America during his heyday. He was also widely regarded as the best player in the world, having defeated reputable players from around the globe, including top Japanese players such as Captain Jack, Masashi, Aniki, Bombsoldier, and Korius in the summer of 2005. He is also Manacloud's younger brother. Ken is currently ranked 13th on the SoCal Melee Power Rankings.

Ken was considered the most consistent player during his prime, and had the most impressive tournament track record earning him the nickname "The King of Smash" within the community. Aside from his personal achievements, Ken is a member of El Chocolate Diablo, which was the top-ranking doubles team, and a member of the Socal Elite 4. Ken is also notable for innovating a highly influential combo named after him.

Biography

World Champion Ken (left, holding two trophies) with a check for $5000.

Ken started playing Super Smash Bros. when it was released for the Nintendo 64. He made his gamertag "sephirothken" after the the main villain of Final Fantasy VII. He was naturally talented at the game and became fluent in the gameplay and style of Smash. However, he was never able to compete in major tournaments for the Nintendo 64 version of Super Smash Bros. due to the lack of a competitive scene. When Melee was released for the Gamecube, Ken initially did not enjoy it, but the game grew on him after a period of a few months. By the time he attended his first tournament, he had already built up an impressive reputation in his town as the best smash player. This tournament, hosted at a local gaming store known as Game Square, employed completely different rules from today's standardized rules. It was a free-for-all tournament, and everybody else teamed up against Ken because he was considered the best.

In 2002 a moderator on Smash World Forums by the handle of Matt Deezie hosted Tournament Go (TG series), which was one of the first major tournaments. There were six installments in the TG series, with each new incarnation being more popular than the last. TG4, in early 2003, was the first major tournament Ken attended. Even with the lack of a strong competitive scene, Ken managed to defeat players who had attended previous TGs and take first out of a record 89 players at that time and he placed second in teams losing to TG1 and TG2 singles winners J.R. Castillo and Justin Junio.

Seven months later, in August 2003, Ken attended and won TG5. This was the first tournament where he teamed with Isai Alvarado for doubles (otherwise known as "Malva00"), who is still considered one of the best Melee players in the nation. Their victory in the doubles tournament started a two-and-a-half year winning streak. They won every doubles tournament they entered until MLG Chicago in July 2006, where they were defeated by Azen and Chillindude829 in the finals and received second place. However, they reclaimed their title later that year in August at MLG Orlando where they defeated Azen and Chillindude829 6-3 in the finals.

For the next two years, Ken continued to win nearly every competition he entered. The worst loss he ever garnered in his competitive career was in August 2004 at TG6 where he placed 9th out of approximately 128 competitors. He did not place below 2nd until MLG Orlando in August 2006 where he placed 5th and then MLG New York (Season Playoffs) where he placed 7th, and in teams he got 3rd teaming with Isai making it his all-time low in singles and doubles at MLG events.

Ken is notable for having fame outside of the Smash games. In September 2006, Ken was nominated as one of five members of "The Dangerous Five" by Electronic Gaming Monthly; he was notable as being one of only two gamers on the list who did not specialise in the Halo games, alongside Michael Brandt, who played Tekken. Ken was referred to as "The Duper", due to his quick, smart, and aggressive playstyle. Additionally, Ken managed to land a spot as a contestant on the 17th season of Survivor.; in the final standings, he won fifth place.

Ken briefly joined the tournament scene for Brawl, with respectable standings, including a second place finish at EVO 2008. EVO 2008, however, proved to be his last tournament; his AllisBrawl profile lists him as inactive, and in a Q&A session with ESPN, Ken stated that he needed a "a big break from gaming", and that he needed to pursue his career in illustration. Ken, however, also suggested that there existed a potential for him in joining the Brawl tournament scene if it got picked up by the MLG again, though this never came to be.

After five years away from competitive Smash, Ken temporarily chose to rejoin the scene in the 2012 tournament of Kings of Cali. In his return to Melee, however, Ken underperformed in singles, getting a 33rd place finish. His doubles run, however, ended in a third place finish with Dr. Peepee, and he provided the deciding KO in the NorCal - Socal 8 on 8 battle against PewPewU; Ken was initially not supposed to appear in the battle for SoCal, but a six stock lead by his team caused team captain Mango to switch out Lucky for him.

Although still no longer as active in the Melee scene as before, Ken has made a handful of appearances since Kings of Cali; while unable to continue his previously dominant standings from the past, Ken continues to be seen in the top 50 of finalists in singles sets, along with solid doubles standings.

On March 18th, 2014, Team Liquid, an eSports team in the Netherlands famous for its StarCraft II and Dota 2 teams, opened a Melee team and signed Ken and KoreanDJ as its first members, with Smash Brothers director Samox producing Team Liquid's official announcement video.

Notable tournament placings

Note: These are only major tournaments which include professional and amateur tournaments with 60 or more players. This list does not represent the number of tournaments Ken has attended in total.

2003

• 1st - Tournament Go 4 (TG4) ($900)
• 1st - SoCal Inland Empire SSB:M
• 1st - Tournament Go 5 (TG5) ($1000)

2004

• 1st - Game Over ($650)
• 1st - The 0-C (Zero Challenge) ($650)
• 1st - MELEE-FC ($500)
• 9th - Tournament Go 6 (TG6)
• 1st - Major League Gaming (MLG) 2004 Season Finals New York ($2000)
• 1st - MLG 2004 Season points

2005

• 2nd - MOAST 3 ($400)
• 1st - MLG 2005 (Season OpenerTournament) DC ($1000)
• 1st - MLG 2005 (Season Tournament) San Francisco ($500)
• 2nd - MLG 2005 (West Coast Regionals) Los Angeles ($1000)
• 1st - MLG 2005 (East Coast Regionals) Atlanta ($2000)
• 1st - MLG 2005 (Central Regionals) Chicago ($2000)
• 1st - MLG 2005 Season Finals New York ($5000)
• 1st - MLG 2005 Season points leader
• 1st - Jack Garden Tournament (JGT) (Japan)
• 1st - Getting Schooled 2 ($800)
• 1st - MELEE-FC3 ($800)

2006

• 1st - Champ Combo: NorCal Edition ($400)
• 1st - Champ Combo: Yayuhzzz Edition ($400)
• 1st - 0-C2 (Zero Challenge 2) ($1200)
• 2nd - MLG 2006 (Season Tournament) New York ($1200)
• 1st - MLG 2006 (Season Tournament) Dallas ($2000)
• 1st - MLG 2006 (Season Tournament) Anaheim ($2000)
• 1st - MLG 2006 (Season Tournament) Chicago ($2000)
• 5th - MLG 2006 (Season Tournament) Orlando ($300)
• 7th - MLG 2006 (Season Playoffs) New York ($375)
• 1st - NCT2: The Big One ($1080)
• 3rd - MLG 2006 (National Championships Singles) Las Vegas ($3000)
• 1st - MLG 2006 (National Championships Doubles) Las Vegas ($5000) per team member
• 1st - MLG 2006 Season points leader ($4000)

2007

• 4th - 0C3 (Zero Challenge 3)
• 1st - Evo World 2007 ($5000)
• 1st - Sushiman's Westminster Tournament
• 7th - Super Champ Combo
• 1st - Super Smash Royale III

2008

• 2nd - Evo 2008

2012

• 33rd - Kings of Cali

2013

• N/A - Kings of Cali 2 (Awarded 1st seed in round 1 pools but forfeited; scheduling conflicts prevented him from attending day 2)
• 49th - EVO 2013
• 25th - Kings of Cali 3

2014

• 9th - SoCal Regionals

Trivia

• Ken has become known for creating a "Peach theory", commonly known as Ken's Peach Theory, which states that every notable Peach player is "either gay, effeminate, metrosexual or a big fat white guy".
• Ken is one of the two Marth players that has been able to take a set off of Fly Amanita's Ice Climbers in tournament, with the other being PewPewU.
  • Ken also holds a historically positive record against Mango, although the two have not played since 2007.

External links

• sephirothken SWF Public Profile
• AiB profile
• News Article, GotFrag DPad